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![Milky Chance Essentials](/https/music.apple.com/assets/artwork/1x1.gif)
Given the breezy, laidback vibe of Milky Chance’s tunes, it’s surprising that high-school pals Clemens Rehbein and Philipp Dausch grew up not in some idyllic surfer magnet but in central Germany. To be fair, the head-nodding grooves and coastal energy on their 2013 hit “Stolen Dance” are as much a reflection of their formative musical diet of Bob Marley and Jack Johnson (who appears on the jubilant “Don’t Let Me Down”) as any environmental factors, while the pair’s jazz-ensemble background is evident in the way their vocal melodies play syncopated catch-up with the hypnotic fingerpicked riff on “Down by the River”.